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Kanye West Weighs in on Virgil Abloh's LV Takeover

Trace William Cowen is a writer based in Los Angeles. He tweets with dramatic irregularity here.

Apr 13, 2018

Image via Getty/Neilson Barnard/adidas

Stop everything, even your so-called job, and read this new Kanye West interview immediately.

For Hollywood Reporter, West sat down with interior designer Axel Vervoordt (with whom he has collaborated extensively) for a freewheeling chat. The two discussed a multitude of art and art-adjacent topics ranging from West's currently-in-progress philosophy book to his desire to become more water-like in getting innovative ideas to the people.

West also addressed Virgil Abloh's recent appointment as Louis Vuitton's men's artistic director, as well as Abloh's repeated description in the press as his "former creative director." "Because [Virgil and I] have been fighting to make apparel at a certain price that still has the same credibility and desirability as something at a higher price," West told Vervoordt. "But when they say he was my creative director, that's incorrect. He was a creative collaborator."

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Vervoordt's response to this was a brief aside about how "every loss" is coupled with a comparable gain. "Acceptance is a learning process," Vervoordt said. West agreed, touting the advice as "very spiritual." He then immediately applied it to how he's envisioning his own future as a designer.

"I have Yeezy, but it's a namesake brand," he said. "It's my nickname. We do these sneakers that sell out and we get, 'Oh, this is the number one brand on Women's Wear Daily.' And I don't wish to be number one anymore, I wish to be water. I wish to be closer to UNICEF or something where I can take the information that I have and help as many people as possible, not to just shove it into a brand."

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As for that philosophy book, West said it's tentatively titled Break the Simulation and will feature his exploration of the ramifications of photographic obsession. "I've got a concept about photographs, and I'm on the fence about photographs—about human beings being obsessed with photographs—because it takes you out of the now and transports you into the past or transports you into the future," West explained. "It can be used to document, but a lot of times it overtakes [people]."

Read the full West x Vervoordt conversation here unless you're a certified lame.